Nature Materials, Published online: 23 September 2026; doi:10.1038/s41563-026-02750-zSpectroscopic studies on a series of bilayer nickelate (La,Pr)3Ni2O7 thin films with insulating, metallic and superconducting ground states are presented and it is concluded that superconductivity emerges when coherent $${d}_{{z}^{2}}-{p}_{z}-{d}_{{z}^{2}}$$ d z 2 - p z - d z 2 interlayer hybridization develops.